Another Lease on Life, Hope Restored

On the occasion of World AIDS Day, Naomi, who lives in the Kiambu District of Kenya’s Central Province, agreed to share her story. The 37-year-old widowed mother of four children, Naomi and her youngest child are HIV-positive. She and her children are enrolled in the ChildFund Weaving the Safety Net program for orphans and other vulnerable children, which has delivered medical care and support to the family. This year’s theme for World AIDS Day is Universal Access and Human Rights. Today and tomorrow, Naomi shares her story.

Having lost my husband to HIV/AIDS in the year 2005, I knew it was just a matter of time before the same fate befell me, as I had also been diagnosed and tested HIV-positive.

I lost hope of living the day my husband was buried.

Back then, HIV/AIDS was considered a death sentence in my village. I had attended countless burials and had no doubt in my mind my day was imminent.

Depressed and Ill
My health started deteriorating very fast. I sunk into a serious depression. The whole situation would have been bearable with support from those around me, specifically my relatives, but it wasn’t so. They avoided us like a plague. I would spend days without anyone visiting me, despite them knowing how much I needed their support. Some even avoided a simple handshake. I felt such a social misfit. I begun to hate myself, and bitterness was slowly consuming me.

A Ray of Hope
When I thought all was lost, I encountered a local community-based organization (CBO) —Kihara Widows, a ChildFund partner in the Weaving the Safety Net for Orphans and other Vulnerable Children (WSN/OVC) program which understood my circumstances. In 2006, my children were enrolled in the program, which made me feel some weight had been lifted off my shoulders. My firstborn son, who had lost hope of going to high school, was enabled to do so. My other three children also became beneficiaries of the various interventions in WSN program.

Naomi and her youngest child are HIV-positive but living positively.

The kind visitors from Kihara Widows CBO, who were now becoming good friends, noticed that my condition was worsening. Having been trained in home-based care they started coming to my home more frequently. Their encouragement, home-based care services and commitment made me come out of the sorry state I was in. My perception to life was different. There was a ray of hope, not just for my children but also for me. A determination to conquer started building up within me. Soon I wanted to live more than ever before, as it dawned on me that I have a right to life. Through their encouragement, I sought treatment for the opportunistic infections that had become frequent, I guess aggravated by stress, fear and anger. Soon I was put on anti-retroviral therapy.

Tomorrow: Read how Naomi is now supporting her family and helping others who face the same challenges that she has.